THE LABOUR MOVEMENT

Evening Star, Issue 22350, 28 May 1936, Page 2

THE LABOUR MOVEMENT

(By Trade Unionist.) CONTROL OF PRICES FOR NECESSITIES. The innovation of the 40-hour week in industries, also the restoration of wages to tho 1931 rates in the Dominion, proposed by the Labour Government, are causing some concern among merchants, who anticipate a radical price adjustment. Several of the large manufacturing firms, to the writer’s personal knowledge, are working overtime, producing stocks for orders; anticipating increased prices when the new legislation becomes effective. We can only surmise that after the wants of these panicky merchants are supplied a slump will occur, as it usually does, resulting in unemployment and short time for a number of employees. 1 do not know if the manufacturers have taken the Government into their confidence or not; but the workers, it the alleged increased costs arc to he passed on, are certainly going to demand that a price stabilisation system be adopted, otherwise I can see us all drifting into the same old vicious circle again. Mr Nash, in speaking about the guaranteed prices to the farmers in the House, made it very clear that the Government intended, if it_ gave a guaranteed price, that that price would include the land worker being provided with a decent and encouraging standard of life. Unless tho Labour Party’s policy provides that, whatever other merits it may have, it must fail. Under any system of price management, tho claim of the worker for a docent and secure standard must be a first charge. We have no right to buy bread, coal, or any other product at the price of tho starvation of-the children of the workers who produce them. The application of this principle need not limit the opportunity of trials of new methods, or initiative and experiments in new methods of cultivation and production. But we cannot control prices unless we are in control of marketing right through; nor can we secure the longterm development of tho best use of land, unless we are able to stabilise or secure fair prices over a sufficient length of time. The Government is prepared to undertake by special machinery to provide these securities of prices for the products of industry, and it must he consulted in the plan of development necessary for its furtherance. This must be accomplished by machinery which will secure that tlie producer, who is intended to get the benefit of it, really does get it, and not somebody else; and the consumer must be safeguarded against any increase of the difference between wholesale and retail prices beyond that which an efficient and wellmanaged marketing system would require. * * * * ENGLISH COST OF LIVING INDEX. After more than 20 years a revised basis is to bo considered for tho cost-of-living index figure which governs the wage agreements of more than a million workers. This was announced in the House of Commons recently by Mr Ernest Brown, Minister of Labour, who said data about the main items of expenditure in working-class households would be collected. Present monthly figures are calculated as tho percentage increase over what it cost to maintain a workingclass family in July, 1914. From a post-war peak of 149 per cent, more in 1920 the difference dropped to 40 per cent, in 1933, and since then has risen slightly. ! The latest figure, at February 29, was 40 per cent, above pre-war. The number of employees whoso wages or salaries vary with the movements of the cost-of-living figures was recently estimated bv the Ministry at between 1,250,000 and 1,500,000. The methods by which the inquiry will be held are to be settled by an advisory committee, whose personnel will be announced shortly. The 1914 figure was reached following an examination of hundreds of working-class budgets in all parts of the country for food, rent (including rates), clothing, fuel and light, and other items. Foodstuffs comprise beef, mutton, bacon, fish, Hour, potatoes, tea, sugar, milk, butter, margarine, cheese, and eggs. Among other items taken into account arc soap, tobacco and cigarettes, fares, and newspapers. * * * * TRADE UNIONS SUSPICIOUS. Trade union anxieties about the European situation were expressed by Sir Walter Citrine, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, in a speech at York, England. Ho had been deeply impressed, he said, by the alarm prevailing among responsible trade unionists on the Continent, a feeling not confined to one country, but widespread and general. They feared that the whole system of collective security and the peace of Europe were in grave jeopardy, and believed that German policy aimed at the break-up of tho League of Nations and the localising of war. Hitler might be regarded, they argued, as offering to co-operato in the preservation of peace in Western Europe, but he gave no reassurance of pacific intentions as regards States on Germany’s eastern frontier. Tho Trade Union and Labour Movement, however, stood for an all-inclu-sive peace, and it was from that standpoint that British and Continental

trade unionists would require to oxamino closely the Gorman proposals just received by 'the other Governments. In form the German Note was conciliatory and non-provocative, but it called for elucidation on many points. Was it Germany’s intention, for instance, to insist upon a. clean sweep of all existing alliances and regional pacts in connection with the effort to sign non-aggression pacts with franco and Belgium, with Italy and Britain as guarantors, and even to buttress these pacts with military assistance if necessary ? . , That was very important in view ol the recent ratification of the FrancoSoviet Pact and other pacts which Franco and other Powers had entered into. It was also important to ascertain whether Germany’s offer of non-aggres-sion pacts with her neighbours on the south-east and the north-cast was framed with the object of excluding Russia. The British Government should publicly invite Germany to explain he/ policy more fully, and meanwhile the agreement of the league Powers to resist any unprovoked aggression should bo .steadily developed on the basis of the Locarno principles. *# * * “ TREASON ” FOR BEING TRADE UNIONISTS. On a trumped-up charge of treason, Rudolf Holowatji, vice-president of the illegal Austrian Wood Workers’ Union, is now serving a sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment, and a young colleague, Ferdinand Steindl, has been sent to gaol for a term of five years. Appealing for a world-wide demand for release, the International Federation of Building and Wood Workers says the charge was based entirely on two leaflets found.on Steindl. It transpired, however, that these leaflets had already been confiscated, in April, 1934, so that Holowatji could have had nothing to do with them, as he was under arrest at the time. The whole charge was on the verge of collapse when the Public Prosecutor produced articles in trade union journals and claimed;— “ These publications demand democracy and elections. In Austria, however, the Constitution does not provide for elections. They would only be possible under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Hence the demand for democracy and elections is treason.” The court obediently accepted this astonishing argument In attempts to intimidate the prisoners, the police arrested relatives. Holowatji’s mother, brother, and fourteen-ycar-old sister were put in gaol and interrogated in the hope of extracting incriminating statements. Police subjected Steindl to all-night examinations, lied to him about Holowatji (saying he had secured a fine job in Czechoslovakia), and urged: “Don’t mind incriminating him. H will not harm him if we catch him.” He was, in fact, in a coll near. AVhen it was protested in court that there was no evidence that the prisoners had any connection with the papers used in the case, the police replied: “ You admit you are a free trade unionist. These papers call themselves free trade unionist, and their contents are treasonable. Consequently a charge of treason is brought against you.” “ All decent people throughout the world,” says the International. “ will surely demand the release of Holowatji and Steindl.” * * « * CRISIS IN TWO YEARS. Mr C. R. Attlee, Leader of the Labour Party, was guest of honour in the House of Commons at a dinner of the National Labour Club, of which he is the new president. “ I believe,” lie said, “ that the next two years will see the crisis for Socialism, * for democracy, and for civilisation, and I believe our people can save civilisation. That is why I feel that my position is a very responsible and difficult one ” * * * * JOBS FOR 10,000 CANADIANS. By arrangement with tlie_ two big railway companies of the dominion, the Canadian Government is going to shift 10,000 unemployed men out of its relief work camps (says the British United Press). Tlio Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railway Companies have agreed to employ the 10,000 men on deferred inintenance work, the cost of which is to be borne jointly by the railways and the Government. * * ♦ * PIECE-WORK SYSTEM IN RUSSIA. According to Sir Walter Citrine, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, “ Piece-work systems, premium bonuses, differential piece rates, and all forms of speeding up known to Western capitalism, wore in operation. It is the basic system, and the trade unions insist that it shall be employed. The workers in several of the factories that I saw were scientifically examined on being engaged, and had to answer many questions, both in writing and in personal interviews, during their examination by the “ Efficiency Department.” The impression I formed was that the system of Taylorism and Munsterbiirg, and generally what has been styled as “ scientific management,” is universal in the Russian factories. _ It is stated that the piece-work earnings are without limit. This is not strictly true in practice. What happens is very similar to other countries. A “ norm ” or unit of work is provided to determine the piece-work rate. This “ norm ” may actually be task work, of whit;' there is plenty in existence in the U.S.S.R. A collective agreement between the trade union and the factory management, which is usually drawn up in the first instance through the factory committee, and the factory administration, sets the payments for those norms. From time to time the norm is raised. My general impression after inspecting many of these collective agreements was lhat the rates fixed were always much lower than the actual earnings. The workers were stimulated by all sorts of methods to increase production. One method is by what is called the “ Udarnik Movement ” or “ shock ” workers. These are young, energetic men and women, as a rule, who are specially skilled or industrious workers. Largo photographs of them are posted throughout the works, in the factory newspapers, and even in the public parks. Special scats are reserved for them at the theatres. Presents, from time to time, arc given to them by the factory administration. I came aero.'/ cases at the Stalin motor factory at Moscow, at the dynamo works at Kharjov, and at the machine building plants at Kramntorsk, where motor cars had been allotted to them for a nominal payment.